Chapter 54 A Friend
A FRIEND
Present day
The steady drone of machinery buzzed in my ear like a bee caught in a jar.
No matter how hard I tried to fight to stay under, there was just nothing I could do.
Chattering voices were all around me, and someone was taking my pulse.
A flood of bright light hit my retinas like a freight train, and I pinched my eyes closed.
A strangled noise escaped my dry mouth, and all the voices went silent.
“Give me the room.” A strong voice commanded.
“Yes doctor.” A choir of acknowledgements spoke, and the patter of shoes migrated around before the door clicked shut.
“Are you awake?” His voice was softer now, almost too soft.
I opened my eyes this time, expecting the harsh lighting, only there weren’t any harsh lights.
The man stood by the door, his hand still on the light panel.
My own personal angel has saved my life again.
He looked at me with a sad, knowing smile before he came around the bedside.
“Here,” He held a styrofoam cup with a straw to my lips, and I greedily gulped down the cold liquid.
“Do you know where you are?” I nodded, still not ready to speak yet.
He set the drink on the side table and pulled up a chair.
There was no rush in his movements, just a slow steady pace. “Do you know what happened?”
The memories bombarded me — the shouting, the crying, and the rape. I nodded again, feeling sick. The heart rate monitor dinged alarms and the man just leaned over silencing it, letting me have the moment to process.
“I’m sorry,” I didn’t know why I was apologizing or what brought me to even utter the words. I shouldn’t have been there. I knew what he was capable of, but I was blind. I thought for once the man that raised me might have given two shits about me, but I was wrong. I was just a stupid little girl.
“You shouldn’t apologize. You didn’t ask to be raped. You owe no one. You do not apologize.” His conviction shook me, like he wanted to open up my brain and drill into my skull that it was not okay.
“Okay.”
“Listen, I don’t know what your story is or what ever fucked up past you’ve been through but if you want it to end I will not hesitate to give you the opportunity,” he set two vials in front of me one a clear liquid and the other had a pink hue to it.
The clear one looked like water or saline or something harmless.
The pink-hued one kind of shimmered in the light, but maybe it was the swollenness of my eyes.
I was wary of it, expecting it to jump off the table and down my throat.
It would kill me, no doubt. Did I want to die?
I couldn’t be sure of anything right now.
I looked at the vials, contemplating why this doctor would offer me such a choice.
He’d saved me not once but multiple times, and I was indebted to him.
Tears streamed down my bruised face, and all I could do was laugh.
He laughed along with me, or maybe it was at me; I didn’t care.
The laughter bubbled up as tears flowed freely.
After a few minutes of our laughing, the doctor uncapped a vial and handed it to me.
It was the clear one. I held it in my hand as he took the pink one, uncapping it himself.
“Oh by the way, I never had the proper chance to introduce myself. I’m Karter.
Dr. Karter Reed,” he said before he downed the whole vial.
He made a face of disgust, and I couldn’t help the giggle that fell from my lips.
“Pink lemonade is never a great flavor, it’s like trying to be strawberry lemonade with unripe strawberries. Gross.”
“Fuck it,” I took one last glance at the vial before slamming it back. The cherry flavor coated my tongue as I swallowed, the liquid cooling my throat on the way down. Karter started laughing as I looked at him confused.
“It’s not alcohol, you didn’t have to slam it back like that,” Karter chuckled.
“Cough syrup?” I questioned as the burning tickle in my throat subsided, the numbing agent working well to combat the inflamed surface. He nodded, smirking at me like I was the idiot who didn’t realize sooner. A friend who just wanted to help me feel better.
“But anyways, unless you want to be poked, prodded, and otherwise questioned by the authorities we need to get you dressed and out of here. Can you walk?” His change of tone was jarring as I nodded and he helped me stand.
He pushed a few buttons on the machinery and then ripped the leads away from my chest. I pulled the IV out a moment later, and he taped some gauze around the wound.
I was fully detached from the hospital equipment, and Karter passed me a pair of scrubs.
“Two options, you can risk walking out the front door, passing the room with two men who have a pissing match going on or you go down the hall six doors to your left and take the stairs to the parking garage.”
“Why are you helping me again?” I asked as I pulled the scrub bottoms up my legs. I was pulling the top over my head when he decided to reply.
“It gets awfully boring here, and this is the most fun I have had in awhile. Take my keys, I can always report the car stolen when your lover boy cop shows up, for the woman who was raped and bailed.” He smirked as if he knew all my secrets.
“I — ” I had my hand on the door handle when I turned back.
“No need to explain, create some hell.”
I shoved open the door, making my way to the stairwell.
Karter’s last words echoed in my mind. Create some hell.
Not ‘give them hell,’ but create it. Fashion it from the rage inside me.
There was something bumping against my leg, and I felt around the pockets.
Inside the pockets I found a set of keys, painkillers and another mystery vial.
I smiled to myself as I clicked the keys, finding a silver Mercedes just around the corner.